Enterprise Intern Fellowships

The third strategic component to the Foundation’s fellowship program is to provide the most qualified Enterprise Student Fellows with meaningful internship opportunities. American Councils and the Foundation have recognized that Fellows would be best prepared to benefit from an internship in the U.S. (or other countries that serve as positive examples of an open market economy operating within a democratic environment) after they have completed at least three years of undergraduate study. This assessment process also identified the need and potential opportunity to provide selected Fellows with valuable experience and exposure to international and Western business practices through in-region internships during their earlier years of undergraduate study.

Plans For The Future

The Foundation and America Councils are actively reviewing the possibility of developing an in-region summer internship program to commence no later than the summer of 2009.

Initial fact-finding by American Councils and Foundation Board members indicates that, particularly in Almaty, Kazakhstan, there are opportunities for summer internships at businesses that would provide Student Fellows with valuable experience and meet the desire of these companies to identify talented future employees.

Further fact-finding is underway, including an assessment of summer internship opportunities with businesses in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan – and to gather additional information required to design an in-region summer internship that will not only provide our Fellows valuable work experience, but also prepare them for, and be coordinated with, the partner
university’s degree requirements for internships.